Roe v. Wade was overturned. So, shouldn’t the pro-life be happy now?
There has been a national March for Life every year since January 22, 1974. This march has faithfully represented the pro-life movement on a national level throughout the years, despite the weather. This march started in order to protest and to testify against Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion in America. It began as a reaction to a political decision, but it’s not just a political march. It’s a march for mankind; it’s a March for Life.
Seemingly, the goal of the March for Life was accomplished when the Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson overturned Roe v. Wade, giving the states the power to ban abortion. Although this was a great victory, it did not accomplish the goal of the pro-life.
In fact, no legal decision can fully accomplish the goals of the pro-life. To be pro-life is to not only be pro-life at the beginning and end of human life, but also to uphold the dignity of the human person throughout his life. “What does this mean?” you may ask. In order to answer this question, we need to look at natural law,—the moral guidelines on how to act based on our purpose and the use of reason—since it can demonstrate the dignity of the human person and how to uphold his dignity.
One way to discover natural law is to take a look at nature. Take the lemon tree for example. It starts as a seed, which becomes a lemon tree when it germinates and starts to grow. It was not a lemon tree before it germinated, since it is simply a piece of a past lemon tree. It only becomes its own tree when it germinates, since that is when it becomes an independent living organism.
As you have probably realized by now, the lemon tree is an allegory for the life of a human. Germination is similar to how a separate human being is created at conception. When conception occurs, the baby is its own independent living organism, which is fed and housed by his mother, otherwise known as a human being.
Humans can know truth. For instance, we can know 2+2=4. This truth is always true at all times and in all places, so it must be immaterial, since all material things have a set time and place in which they exist. If the mind can know the immaterial, then it must also be immaterial. This is so, since you cannot touch an immaterial thing with any material thing; the concept of 2+2=4 cannot be thrown at a wall. If the human mind is immaterial, then it must be immortal, since an immaterial thing has no materials that can fall apart. If our minds are immortal, then they must have value, since only valuable things are lasting. If humans have great value, it is evident that killing someone is gravely wrong.
When there is a great injustice being committed, we are called to react in order to restore justice, since silence is consent. Abortion calls us to protest and to fight in order to erradicate it from the world.
We need to fight against abortion, but how?
If we want to end something, we need to know how it begins. People get abortions because of unchastity, ignorance, and selfishisness. Abortion typically terminates “unwanted” pregnancies conceived outside of marriage. This can only happen when someone was unchaste, since that is the only way a baby can be conceived outside of marriage. Not only does unchastity cause abortion, but the availability of abortion works to promote unchastity; people think that they can be unchaste without needing to worry about any consequences. They simply kill the “consequences.” The abortions that happen within marriage can happen if the couple doesn’t know the truth about abortion, so they have one out of convenience. Finally, an abortion can happen if the couple knows what abortion is, but they have one because it is more convenient than letting their baby live.
The fact that we can conveniently murder millions of innocent and vulnerable human beings is why our culture can be referred to as the Culture of Death. The culture has a strong effect on the people within it. It has not only enabled people to have abortions through laws, but has also caused many people to have abortions, since people do not like to feel different from everyone else. The goal of the pro-life movement is to change the Culture of Death into a Culture of Life. The essential change needed for this is the acceptance of the great value of each individual human person.
A good way to spread the Culture of Life is to influence those around you in your daily life. Often, we simply walk past many people in our lives because we feel too busy to even recognize them as humans. Pick three people in your life; a relative, friend, neighbor, co-worker, classmate, or anybody you see on a regular basis. Whenever you see them first in a day, simply make the time to talk to them in a real conversation, and find a way to help them right then and there in a small or even a large way, if you can. This simple recognition and service of someone’s humanity can make a larger impact than you would think. If you do this day in and day out, it will not only show the person that you do it to see their own value, but you will begin to see the great worth of each and every human in your life.
A law is limited and cannot completely eradicate abortion and all evil. Even if our country were to ban abortion, people would still continue to disrespect the human person through abortion and other means. Therefore, our work must continue. In fact, it will never end in this world, since it is a flawed world, but we are still called to replace injustice with justice, lies with truth, hate with love, vice with virtue, and the Culture of Death with a Culture of Life. That is why our work is NOT over.
-Andrew Langley
The COOL 